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22 October 2010

Open Access Week Profile 4: Research Centres

How do forced migration research centres express their support for open access? One way is by making their research output available within their parent institution's repository. So, for example, the Refugee Research Network collection in YorkSpace provides access to research produced by the Centre for Refugee Studies; Chr. Michelsen Institute research is available through the Bergen Open Research Archive; reports and papers from the Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration (CARIM) are housed in the European University Institute repository; and the Human Trafficking Team has deposited conference papers and other documents in the University of Nebraska's DigitalCommons.

Some research centres are also adopting Creative Commons (CC) licenses for their web sites. While most forced migration web sites are generous about posting full-text information, more often than not, they lack any guidance on what can be done with that information beyond reading it online. CC licenses take the guesswork out of the equation by more explicitly indicating how research works can be used, shared and adapted.

Visit, for example, the Feinstein International Centre (FIC) online; they are one of the first research centres I have noticed to have switched to a CC license (scroll to the bottom of the home page to view it). Other examples include the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN), Forced Migration Online (FMO), and the Refugee Research Network (RRN).